As a senior fellow, Sergei Hovyadinov worked with the Ranking Digital Rights Project at the Open Technology Institute to provide an in-depth analysis of the role of internet intermediaries in the execution of Russian state controls over the internet and how these companies adjust their operations and transparency practices in autocratic regimes like Russia.

A Russian version was released first while a summary blog post and the accompanying paper were subsequently released in English. Sergei also presented the findings at numerous conferences and other public events and produced two additional blog posts in Russian. In addition, Sergei published a post that detailed the gaps in existing transparency reports

Sergei is a doctoral candidate at Stanford Law School. His research focuses on the evolution of state control over the Internet in Russia. In his most recent job at Google he managed legal affairs of the company in Russia and Eastern Europe. Before that, he was a legal counsel at Intel in Russia and the UK. He holds a JSM (Stanford Law School); an LL.M (McGeorge School of Law), and an LLB in Law (Odessa State University).